The RAT is essentially a mini beer-festival, featuring ales from two local breweries served in a restored bar carriage.

The loco does two round trips from Alton to New Alresford. So, there’s plenty of time to enjoy some social time with a group of mates in one of the wood-panelled carriages or simply watch the beautiful mid-Hampshire countryside pass by as you get slowly tipsy.

Beers on the Real Ale Train.

There’s also great homecooked food like curry and chilli con carne available to accompany your beer.

It’s great value too – tickets are just £15 and it’s only £2 a pint onboard.

Alresford station.

2. A bookshop

A few years ago, drinking beer in one of the many micropubs that have sprung up in Southampton would have been considered unusual.

Indeed, the experience of quaffing fine beer in a former bank in Shirley (Overdraft), a converted Victorian butcher’s shop in Bitterne Park (the Butcher’s Hook) and an old doctor’s surgery in Portswood (the Tram Stop) hasn’t lost its lustre yet.

However, the quirkiest micropub in Southampton is surely the Bookshop Alehouse, which as the name suggests doubles up as a bookshop and a pub.

In the Bookshop Alehouse.

Like most of the other micropubs in the city, this place used to be a retail unit.

It didn’t experience a complete transformation though – the former bookshop’s paperbacks and hardbacks stayed on the shelves and were joined by seating, a bar and a varied selection of up to eight beers on cask and keg and four proper ciders.

3. A farmers’ market

You might think it’s – well – just farmers who sell their produce at a farmers’ market.

4. A trading estate

In the last 15 years, the number of breweries in the UK has tripled from around 500 to more than 1,500 today.

In Hampshire alone, there are now more than 30, many of which are new microbreweries.

The great thing about setting up a brewery is that you don’t need a fancy building, just the right equipment and some space. This is why so many of Hampshire breweries are based on trading estates and business parks.

In the Napoleonic Wars, it was a jail for French prisoners of war and the graffiti they wrote in the 1700s still adorns the walls. However, it’s the stunning spiral staircase and 14th century timber-framed ceiling that you’ll notice first when you enter the Wool House.

The stairs and timber-framed ceiling at the Dancing Man

The beer selection is also pretty noticeable, with eight hand pumps offering beer from the onsite brewery as well as guest ales. There’s food too.

If you fancy finding out a bit more about the history of the Wool House and the surrounding streets, See Southampton run a bi-monthly ‘Barrels and Beer” walking tour. This includes many of Southampton’s historic pubs and finishes with beer tasting at the Dancing Man.